2020 CSJ Sagarin NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Projections-FINAL

With the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 NCAA men’s basketball tournament will not be played. But with all games now played for the season, the following would be the final projections for the tournament this year.
This projection took into account either the tournament champions or the top seed in the tournment if that team’s respective conference did not finish. The seeds were projected using the Sagarain rankings.
All at large selections were also made using the Sagarin rankings.
Kansas, Gonzaga, Michigan State, and Baylor were the projected #1 seeds.
Automatic Qualifiers
The following are the 32 Division I conference champions or projected champions.
- America East
- American Athletic
- The league announced its tournament will not be played.
- #1 seed Cincinnati
- Atlantic 10
- ACC
- The ACC announced the rest of its tournament has been canceled.
- #1 seed Florida State
- Atlantic Sun
- Champion: Liberty (30-4)
- Championship matchup: Liberty vs. Lipscomb
- Bracket
- Big 12
- Big East
- The Big East canceled the rest of the tournament.
- #1 seed Creighton
- Big Sky
- The Big Sky has canceled the remainder of its conference tournament.
- #1 seed Eastern Washington
- Big South
- Champion: Winthrop (24-10)
- Championship matchup: Winthrop vs. Hampton
- Bracket
- Big Ten
- Big West
- Colonial
- Champion: Hofstra (26-8)
- Championship matchup: Hofstra vs. Northeastern
- Bracket
- Conference USA
- Horizon League
- Champion: Northern Kentucky (23-9)
- Championship matchup: Northern Kentucky vs.UIC
- Bracket
- Ivy League
- Champion: Yale (23-7) as the regular-season champion.
- Per the Ivy League, the tournament has been canceled.
- Metro Atlantic Athletic (MAAC)
- Mid-American (MAC)
- Mid-Eastern Athletic (MEAC)
- Missouri Valley
- Champion: Bradley (23-11)
- Championship matchup: Bradley vs. Valparaiso
- Bracket
- Mountain West
- Champion: Utah State (26-8)
- Championship matchup: San Diego State vs. Utah State
- Bracket
- Northeast
- Champion: Robert Morris (20-14)
- Championship matchup: Robert Morris vs. Saint Francis U
- Bracket
- Ohio Valley
- Champion: Belmont (26-7)
- Championship matchup: Belmont vs. Murray State
- Bracket
- Pac-12
- Patriot League
- Champion: Boston University (21-13)
- Championship matchup: Colgate vs. Boston U
- Bracket
- SEC
- Southern
- Champion: East Tennessee State (30-4)
- Championship matchup: East Tennessee State vs. Wofford
- Bracket
- Southland
- Southwestern Athletic (SWAC)
- Summit League
- Champion: North Dakota State (24-8)
- Championship matchup: North Dakota State vs. North Dakota
- Bracket
- Sun Belt
- West Coast
- Champion: Gonzaga (31-2)
- Championship matchup: Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary’s
- Bracket
- Western Athletic (WAC)
Field of 68
The following are the 68 teams based on the Sagarin rankings and using the 32 automatic qualifiers and the 36 at-large qualifers. Note, the teams highlighted in YELLOW are ones from Mid-Major conferences, in GREEN are High Major conferences, and in BLUE are from Major conferences.
Each of the seeds are highlighted for the four regions with the exception of the #11, #12, and #16 seeds, which have five teams for the #11 and #12 and six for the #16 seeds. These seeds are projections that would play in the First Four games. The eight First Four teams are highlighted on the left in ORANGE and in italics. These teams are the last four at-large teams and the last four automatic qualifying teams.

Tourament Bracket
Using the field above, the following would the bracket using the NCAA critera were two conference teams can not meet in the first four or in the first round. Open a larger view of the projected bracket in the link below the snap below.


Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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